The Rise of Australia - Chapter 982

c963 Besiege Madrid

Whether Patricia came or not, Arthur already had the answer in his mind about whether to help the Swedish royal family consolidate the throne.

But if he could gain the favor of Gustav VI and the entire Swedish royal family, there is no doubt that this deal would become more cost-effective.

If you think about it carefully, if Sweden is included, Arthur has already won over two of the three Nordic countries, which is very important for the strategic layout of the entire Mediterranean region.

After all, Australasia is going to compete for world hegemony after the war, and the support of these countries is still relatively important.

As long as Australasia builds military bases and deploys missiles in Sweden and Finland, Australasia’s nuclear deterrence can expand to most of Europe, and it can also affect the entire Nordic and Central and Eastern Europe through Finland and Sweden.

What’s more, Sweden has quite rich iron ore resources. The overall strategic value can be said to be the highest among the three Nordic countries.

Although Arthur is ready to support the Swedish royal family, the interests and demands he should ask for will not be less.

In the talks with Crown Prince Gustav, the Australasian government put forward requirements for Sweden and Australasia to sign a trade treaty and deepen military cooperation.

What else can Crown Prince Gustav do?

In order to save the Swedish royal family, Crown Prince Gustav had no other choice at this time.

Of course, the British might be able to save them. But the British appetite is bigger than that of Australasia, and because they are not related, the British may not help them.

After all, the current Swedish King Gustav V clearly supports Germany. In addition, the princess comes from the German aristocracy and is completely opposite to the British royal family.

On June 27, 1938, the Australasian Military Intelligence Bureau intercepted a top-secret telegram, and the content of the telegram alarmed the entire Military Intelligence Bureau.

Because the content of the telegram is very simple, so simple that there is only one sentence, that is, the Irish incitement has been successful.

This telegram came from Germany, which means that the Germans are infiltrating the British Irish region.

Speaking of Ireland, the current relationship between Ireland and Britain is still relatively complicated.

Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom and has no independent military power.

But Ireland also has a government, parliament and national departments, which is completely like a country within a country.

The current situation is inseparable from the previous Irish civil war.

Although Ireland did not become independent with the help of Australasia, the British obviously did not have the strength to suppress Ireland comprehensively.

In other words, Ireland’s resistance to Britain has already formed a climate at this time. Unless a huge price is paid, Britain cannot turn Ireland back into that ordinary administrative region.

At present, Ireland can be said to have independently taken charge of all the functions of a country except diplomacy and military.

Coupled with the various histories of Britain and Ireland, the Irish people’s pursuit of independence has never stopped, but has turned from the surface to the underground.

When intercepting this intelligence, the Australasia Military Intelligence Bureau had basically understood the Germans’ action goals, which was to incite Ireland to regain independence and find some trouble for the British within the British.

It has to be admitted that such a plan can indeed cause a lot of trouble to Britain.

As an important part of the British Isles, the importance of the Irish region to Britain is unquestionable.

If Ireland is lost, the British Empire will lose an important grain-producing area, as well as millions of Irish people.

But if the British Empire forcibly suppresses it, Ireland, which is at its doorstep, will become a stumbling block for the British Empire, causing trouble for the British government from time to time.

When Arthur learned of this intelligence, he still had some ideas in his mind. Although Britain is an ally of Australasia, Arthur does not intend to help Britain in Ireland.

The Irish people’s pursuit of independence will cause a lot of trouble for the British, which can further weaken the British’s comprehensive national strength.

Let me ask, if the British can’t even control Ireland at their doorstep, how can they control those overseas colonies tens of thousands of kilometers apart?

Once the stable colonial system collapses, the glory of the British Empire will be gone.

This is also the biggest problem of the colonial empire, that is, the strength of the entire country depends very much on the blood transfusion of the colonies, and the colonies are crucial to the strength of the country.

Although the colonial empire is also very powerful, compared with those countries that can create super giants on their own land, countries that rely on colonies to become super powers have more disadvantages.

After receiving the intelligence, Arthur immediately ordered the Military Intelligence Agency to pay attention to the actions of the Germans, but not to contact the British for the time being.

Anyway, the intelligence cooperation between Britain, France and Australia is only to prevent the infiltration of the Russians, but there is no close cooperation on the intelligence about the Germans.

The Irish problem has actually exposed the biggest flaw of colonial empires such as Britain and France. Especially at the moment when freedom and democratic ideas have gradually risen, such flaws will become more and more fatal.

This is exactly why Arthur is not worried about the post-war struggle with Britain for world hegemony. As long as Arthur is willing, it will be very easy to dismember the colonial system.

Because the public opinion of the people in the colonies of the British Empire that have already become established has gradually moved towards independence.

This is also human nature. If it continues to be a colony, all resources and materials must be supplied to the mainland first, which is very unfair to the population of the colony.

It is often not the colonial government that leads to the independence of the colonies, but the large number of immigrants who go to the colonies.

Arthur also understood this, so he decided to localize all colonies instead of strengthening control.

But at this time, Britain and France no longer have the option of localizing their colonies. Their colonies are too far away from the mainland, and the time and effort required for localization are several times that of Australasia.

It takes ten or even dozens of years to completely localize a colony. For a country like Britain, where colonies are thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers apart, the time required for localization is at least several decades.

But from historical experience, the colonial system may not last for decades.

India, which is constantly seeking independence, is enough to give the British a headache. Coupled with important colonies such as South Africa and Canada, for the British, their task is no longer to localize the colonies, but to maintain the colonial system of the British Empire for a longer time.

As long as the colonial system exists, the British Empire will still be one of the most powerful countries in Europe.

But once the colonial system collapsed, especially after losing the most important region like India, Britain’s strength would drop off a cliff, and even the powerful Royal Fleet could not be maintained.

This is what happened in later generations. People only heard about the invincible aircraft carrier battle group of the United States. Who has heard about the Royal Fleet of the British Empire?

After losing the blood transfusion of the colonies, considering the small size of the British mainland, it is already quite good to be able to maintain the status of an upper-middle power.

Where is the British attention at this time?

Of course, it is on the Spanish battlefield, which is advancing very fast.

At this time, Spain finally experienced the feeling of the Germans. Spain, which was attacked from the north and south, seemed to see the end of the world.

A large number of French troops rushed to the east and west coasts of Spain from both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains.

Barcelona and the Basque region were successively occupied by the French, and the war also spread to Aragon and Navarre in the south.

The British and Australasia attacks were launched from Gibraltar. The British, who experienced the backdoor for the first time, were like entering an empty land. They successively captured Malaga, Granada and Almeria, and took the Granada region in southern Spain into their hands.

The Australasia army mainly attacked Cadiz and Seville in the west, and pushed the front line to the border between Spain and Portugal.

Portugal was able to bear it. Even though its neighbors had been torn apart by the three countries of Britain, France and Australia, Portugal still had no intention of joining the war.

This is somewhat similar to Portugal in history. Together with its neighbor Spain, it watched the development of the European situation and successfully avoided the outbreak of war in Portugal.

However, it is no longer important whether Portugal participated in the war. For the three countries of Britain, France and Australia, there is no need for Portugal to join in to share a piece of the pie at this time.

Facing the attack of the three-nation coalition, the Spanish army retreated so quickly, which was much more straightforward than the Spanish Civil War a few years ago.

Spain is also a multi-ethnic country. Although Spain’s unity is more stable, there are also many domestic problems.

The reason why Spain can maintain a stable rule of a country is largely because the Spanish, the main ethnic group in Spain, are located in the center of the country and can radiate to the surrounding areas of Spain at any time.

If you barely regard Spain as a square, you can be surprised to find that the capital of Spain, Madrid, is located in the center of the country.

Most of the areas near Madrid are Spanish. Thanks to this ethnic distribution, the unification of Spain has been maintained for such a long time.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is also a multi-ethnic country, is different. As can be seen from the name, the main ethnic groups of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are Austrians and Hungarians.

But in fact, the only main ethnic group that can really serve as the core is the Austrians, who can also be called South Germans.

Unfortunately, most of the South Germans are located in the Austrian region, and Austria is located in the northwest of the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This makes it difficult for the Austrian region to radiate and affect Hungary. Hungary has too high a voice in the entire empire, which eventually led to the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Now, after Britain, France and Australia launched an attack on Spain, the internal rule of Spain has become less stable.

The French-occupied Barcelona region is already discussing independence, and there are many organizations in the northern Basque and Navarra seeking independence so that they can have a higher voice and power.

This is actually related to the history of Spain. The establishment of Spain was very short. Before that, there were many Catholic countries on Spanish soil, such as Navarra, Aragon, Barcelona, ​​Galicia, Asturias and Leon.

Castile, the predecessor of Spain, annexed these countries in the course of history and eventually unified into the current Spain.

However, because the history of Spain’s establishment is relatively short, many ethnic groups do not recognize themselves as Spaniards, and do not have a high sense of identity with the Spanish government in Madrid.

This is also the reason why Spain did not revive as a powerful country in Europe in later generations. If there is no strong ruler who can win the trust of all Spaniards, the fragmentation of Spain will never be integrated.

Perhaps in the next few decades or even hundreds of years, the people of Spain will admit that they are glorious Spaniards. But that is already a long time in the future, and for the current Spanish government, it is something that is desirable but unattainable.

Spain has a small population, so naturally they can arm a small number of troops.

In order to cooperate with the previous German and Italian attacks on the French North African colonies, Spain has deployed 300,000 troops in North Africa, which is nearly half of Spain’s previous troops.

Although part of the army has been mobilized now, all the Spanish troops on the Iberian Peninsula add up to only a little over 500,000.

Obviously, such an army size is not worth mentioning for Britain, France, and Australia, and is far less than the real powers such as Italy that have surrendered.

These 500,000 troops will also be dispersed to the vast Spain for defense, and the Spanish troops defending in various places are pitifully few.

This is also the reason why the British, French and Australian troops were able to capture Spanish cities quickly.

As the core region of Spain, the Spanish government has deployed more than 250,000 troops around Madrid, which is half of the current Spanish troops in the Iberian region.

Unfortunately, 250,000 troops are not even the number of a French army group, and France has sent two army groups to attack Spain.

Adding the number of British and Australasian troops, the number of troops between the Allied Powers and the Allied Powers in the Iberian Peninsula has been as high as 4 times.

The Spanish army is not a particularly powerful army. Facing an enemy that is 4 times its own, the most the Spanish army does is retreat and surrender.

In July 1938, the Australasian army went north to capture Badajoz, Cordoba and Ciudad Real, and then pushed the front line to Toledo in the south of Madrid.

The British were not to be outdone. After controlling the entire Granada region, part of the British army continued to advance northeastwards and attack the Murcia and Valencia regions.

Another part of the British army chose to go north to join the Australasian army and attack Madrid, the capital of Spain.

The French army was the largest in number, and their offensive plan was even larger.

After occupying the Aragon region, the French army there chose to go south to Guadalajara, and further west was the Madrid region.

The French army in the Basque and Navarra regions chose to go to Burgos and Asturias.

From the map, the British, French and Australian armies have gradually begun to encircle Madrid and are gradually narrowing the encirclement.

This is the most fatal to Spain, but although they know this, they have no way to deal with it.